Smoky Oysters

Gone are the days when Virginia oysters (Crassostrea virginica) as big as goose eggs were plentiful from Chesapeake Bay down to Florida, and oyster houses in New Orleans, Mobile, and Biloxi overflowed with customers devouring fat Apalachicolas and Bon Secours for a dime a dozen. All Southern oysters might be scarce and expensive today compared with the bivalve’s golden age 150 years ago, but this reality doesn’t seem to have fazed coastal cooks in the least, one of whom, in Wilmingto